My adventures in bladesmithing and luthiery, and other stuff. Prepare to be amazed. (Yawn).

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More uke pics

Here’s the top with the braces all carved. They say that ukes are not little guitars, and you should not build them the same, but I sanded the top too thin towards the end of the lower bout, so I wasn’t comfortable with just using three braces like you’re supposed to. So I used the typical fan bracing used in classical guitars, but made them really small. Hopefully it will sound ok.

The neck block. Because my hand is too big to fit inside the soundhole, I have to use the Spanish heel style of assembly, rather than my preferred method of bolt-ons.

There’s a ledge cut on the top of the block, and the soundboard is glued on there:

Tail block also glued on:

Then the sides are glued on:

Then the rim is sanded to a 15′ radius with my big dish:

Then the kerfing is glued on:

The back is braced, and then the braces carved. The braces are sanded on the dish, so they have the same radius as the rim.

The fingerboard with most of the frets installed:

Next the kerfing is sanded down flush with the rim, again using the dish. Then notches are routed out for the brace ends, and glue is applied.

Then the back is installed, and clamped with go bars:

I also made the bridge clamping caul. It’s a lot easier to this before putting the back on. Don’t ask me how I know. 🙄

I’m hoping I can use a vacuum clamp to attach the bridge, in which case I won’t need the caul, but better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. Again, don’t ask me how I know. 😀

Well, we’ll see how much of a treasure this instrument is going to be…

A caul is just a block of wood or MDF that’s used to provide support when clamping something for gluing. The bridge caul has a radius sanded on it to match the radius on the underside of the bridge, and this will introduce some curvature to the otherwise flat soundboard.

The uke wasn’t actually bolted down while I glued on the back, I had to use an extra layer of MDF so the go bars would be the right length.